Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville with Manneken Pis

[niminy-piminy]

Top 100 Benelux Films – SCFZ Poll ... https://letterboxd.com/mariogaborovic/l ... scfz-poll/

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

A/
Chantal Akerman – SCFZ Directors Poll #43 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... s-poll-43/

D/
Dardenne Brothers - SCFZ Directors Poll #271 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-271/
→ SCFZ poll: Dardenne Brothers ... viewtopic.php?f=5&t=719

F/
Jacques Feyder – SCFZ Directors Poll #236 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-236/

V/
Paul Verhoeven – SCFZ Directors Poll #106 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-106/
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[greennui]

Not a single Frans Zwartjes film in that list?? smdh

[niminy-piminy]

my points of interest:
1/ i wonder what films come from countries (Belgium, Netherlands) of approximately the same size as my homeland (how they face the cultural hegemony of the superpowers)
2/ i wonder if a tax evasion region called Luxembourg is using any bugs (squeezed from the "system") to make any films

films i logged in the past few years that are related to NETHERLANDS.
btw. on KM, the "region" attached to a film is based (mostly) on a region related to the content of the movie, not based (ofc mistakes might occur) on filmmakers'/producers' nationality, thus the following list might contain some "perplexing/misleading" entries.

BUILDING AMIDST SOLITUDE (Pim Zwier)
COLOURS AND PATTERNS (Marc Burkett)
THE RITMAN LIBRARY: AMSTERDAM (Sara Ferro, Chris Weil)
BLOOMING FLOWERS AND PLANT MOVEMENTS (J. C. Mol)
THERE IS A GARDEN IN MY HEAD (Karin Wiertz, Jacques Verbeek)
SOLASTALGIA (Eline Kersten)
PARANON (Zeno Van Den Broek)
VENETIAN BLINDS (Jan Dibbets)
DUTCH MOUNTAIN (Jan Dibbets)
WINDOW PAINTING (Paul de Nooijer, Jerry King Musser)
THE THIRD T(H)EST (Paul de Nooijer, Jerry King Musser)
STRIP SHOW 1850 (Paul de Nooijer, Menno de Nooijer)
THE RAPTURE (Michael Fleming)
OVER&OVER (Michael Fleming)
THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT (Michael Fleming)
CITY RISING (Metahaven)
LIQUID LANDSCAPE (Nan Wang)
TIMELINES (2/1) (Thomas Mohr)
#57 (Joost Rekveld)
THE SADNESS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER (Alexei Dmitriev)
IDYLL (Esther Urlus)
RED MILL (Esther Urlus)
AUDITION (Esther Urlus)
DEEP RED (Esther Urlus)
KONRAD & KURFÜRST (Esther Urlus)
XUN (Lichun Tseng)
LANG (Lichun Tseng)
FLOW (Lichun Tseng)
THE NEW RIJKSMUSEUM - THE FILM (Oeke Hoogendijk)
FORGIVE ME (Cyrus Frisch)
THE DIKE BUILDERS (Bert Haanstra)
GOD SHIVA (Bert Haanstra)
THE MANTLE OF LOVE (Adriaan Ditvoorst)
PARANOIA (Adriaan Ditvoorst)
DAZZLE (Cyrus Frisch)
ME, SHOWER, ROTTERDAM (FILMSCRIBBLES 3) (Anja Czioska)
DON'T MOVE (Marc Geerards)
A WIND ROSE (Barbara Hanlo)
#37 (Joost Rekveld)
THE READING LESSON (Johan van der Keuken)
A FLEETING DREAM (Henri Plaat)
2ND WAR HATS (Henri Plaat)
NOW THAT YOU ARE GONE (Henri Plaat)
FRAGMENTS OF DECAY (Henri Plaat)
WATERLOOPLEIN DISAPPEARS (Ed Van Der Elsken)
THE DRESS (Alex van Warmerdam)
WELCOME TO LIVE, DEAR LITTLE ONE (Ed Van Der Elsken)
DYLABY (Ed Van Der Elsken)
KAREL APPEL, COMPOSER (Ed Van Der Elsken)
HANDS (Ed Van Der Elsken)
DIRTY GIRL (Sanne Sannes)
THE NORTHERNERS (Alex van Warmerdam)
PAINTING (Alex van Warmerdam)
NEW BABYLON DE CONSTANT (Maartje Seyferth, Victor Nieuwenhuijs) ... i adore Constant Nieuwenhuys, architect associated with Situationist Int.
CROWDS (Geert Mul)
PLAYGROUND (Gerco de Ruijter)
ON HANNE DARBOVEN / IN CONCLUSION (Thomas Mohr)
UP TO THE SKY AND MUCH MUCH MORE (Barbara Meter)
TRACES OF SMOKE (Frans van de Staak)

[niminy-piminy]

films i logged in the past few years that are related to BELGIUM.
ofc, i absolutely adore Chantal Akerman!
the only reason there are no more Akerman entries in the following list is... i watched nearly her whole oeuvre prior to starting logging films on KM.
btw. BLOW UP MY TOWN is a rewatch — i keep watching this particular film regularly now and then (to preserve my youthful spirit — it's my favorite anti-aging procedure).

MAHONIE (Emily Lefebvre)
NOCTURNAL BUTTERFLIES (Raoul Servais)
HUMUS (Antonin De Bemels)
THE CHILDREN'S BUILDING SITE (Jean Harlez)
FLORÉAL (Thierry De Mey)
LA CHAMBRE (Chantal Akerman)
THE IRON HOUSE (Stan Neumann) ... about architect Victor Horta
DANCING PLAGUE (Gerd De Kinderen)
THE REINVENTION OF GREGOR (Gerd De Kinderen)
PRINTBIRD (Gerd De Kinderen)
NEW MOON (Gerd De Kinderen)
SATURNUS (Ludo Mich)
DEUS EX MACHINA (Ludo Mich)
ALCUBIQUE (Alexis Burlat)
THE WORLD WELCOMES FAME - SLAGSMÅLSKLUBBEN (Alexis Burlat)
3 MINUTES (Alexis Burlat)
SHIPS IN DISTRESS IN A DATASTORM (Jeroen Cluckers)
STORYTELLER (Nicolas Provost)
SONATA IN BRUSSELS (Emile Degelin)
BLAST OF SILENCE (Aurélien Doyen)
AMER (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani)
HOUSES OF POVERTY (Henri Storck)
PEASANT SYMPHONY (Maurice Delattre, Henri Storck)
FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL EYES (Henri Storck)
TRYING TO DESCRIBE ONESELF (Boris Lehman)
BLOW UP MY TOWN (Chantal Akerman)
I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE: THE CINEMA OF CHANTAL AKERMAN (Marianne Lambert)
JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (Chantal Akerman)
WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH (Peter Bate) ... about Belgian rubber adventure in Congo

films i logged in the past few years that are related to LUXEMBOURG.
0 (zero).
what the fuck they are doing with all those bugs they accumulate? (if not wasting them on films???)
actually (to be honest), i see there are a few films with "Luxembourg" label in KM database — so maybe just my shortcoming i don't watch them.

[niminy-piminy]

btw. can anyone recall any other filmmaker coming from Benelux (besides Chantal Akerman) that has been the subject of SCFZ Directors' Poll?

[greennui]

btw. can anyone recall any other filmmaker coming from Benelux (besides Chantal Akerman) that has been the subject of SCFZ Directors' Poll?

Verhoeven definitely.

[niminy-piminy]

thx! will add him in the intro post.

[greennui]

Just noticed that a Dardenne bros poll hasn''t been done yet nor have they even been suggested. Def two for the 'acclaimed directors that scfz are seemingly indifferent about' list.

[niminy-piminy]

i also wonder if Boris Lehman is someone with potential to become the subject of the directors' poll?
i didn't watch much by him but i expect he might have some hidden fans here???

or the duo Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani?
(in this case, i am rather suspicious tho and i guess they fall in the Dardenne bros category)

[niminy-piminy]

from the Netherlands, Bert Haanstra is a popular figure i expect.
are on SCFZ some hidden fans of Cyrus Frisch? or Adriaan Ditvoorst? or Alex van Warmerdam?

[wba]

i also wonder if Boris Lehman is someone with the potential to become the subject of the directors' poll?
i didn't watch much by him but i expect he might have some hidden fans here???

or the duo Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani?
(in this case, i am rather suspicious tho and i guess they fall in the Dardenne bros category)

I like Lehmann, but have seen only little (though more than by Akerman...).
Seen one Cattet/Forzani, which was terrible (AMER).

[niminy-piminy]

I like Lehmann, but have seen only little (though more than by Akerman...).
Seen one Cattet/Forzani, which was terrible (AMER).

seen also only AMER without being tempted to explore more.
and i also like Lehmann but keep postponing to delve into his oeuvre after the initial — tempting — viewing(s).
about Akerman, we vastly differ seems like.
Akerman is a goddess of cinema!
(nothing revelatory but i have to repeat this popular opinion.)

[niminy-piminy]

and besides Lehman, i wish to get more familiar with Ludo Mich.
https://letterboxd.com/director/ludo-mich/

DEUS EX MACHINA (1970)
https://youtu.be/zmU-CnaY-PQ

SATURNUS (1971)
https://youtu.be/GLp7gt43zcE

[sally]

re: NE to start with - ahem, joris ivens? johan van der keuken? peter delpeut? mine & greennui's secret j c mol?

filtering by netherlands on letterboxd gives me a load of gibberish, half the films are definitely not dutch (japón? tie xi qu??) so i haven't the foggiest (also, loznitsa's in the fog is also not dutch) what dutch films i've actually seen

however, off the top of my head i do have a dutch entry for Angel's DtC - gerard rutten's dood water which is basically 'jean epstein does the netherlands-ish)





i have only seen two frans van de staak but OH MY, i would love to see more (my letterboxd avatar is from rooksporen)

also painter biopics (the light!)
jos stelling's rembrandt
greenaway's rembrandt films
peter thompson's lowlands (okay these two aren't by dutch filmmakers, but they are lovely)


and there are some lovely silents (the sea!), but i really never ever want to see another willy mullens city short ever again

[niminy-piminy]

frans van den staak
besides ROOKSPOREN, i watched (prior to logging on KM — and thus not listed above) SEPIO and i was charmed — my fav "internal monologues" genre!

joris ivens
seen few prior logging on KM (need to see more).

johan van der keuken
few entries on list above but need to see more — like him.

peter delpeut
somehow didn't encounter him yet (bookmarked a few films).

j c mol
seen 1 (last autumn) in the "Garden" section of JIDFF (BLOOMING FLOWERS AND PLANT MOVEMENTS).

https://youtu.be/LuN08inNVgE

[wba]

about Akerman, we vastly differ seems like.
Akerman is a goddess of cinema!

I have seen one Akerman at the cinema, which was fantastic, and shown another of her films on 16mm (which I couldn't really watch, cause projecting film properly is usually work), so it's not that I wouldn't like to see more. Just somehow it never happened, so far.

[niminy-piminy]

if i remember right, my "Dielman" entry is on the list above because i went to see (rewatch) the movie in the cinema (a few years ago).
otherwise, i have seen many, but all only on PC screen.

[Mauries]

THE SADNESS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER (Alexei Dmitriev)

The voiceover is my voice! (and I helped some in the writing).

[niminy-piminy]

cool!
let's all of us watch/hear the film then.
i liked it!

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-sadness ... t-forever/
The most beautiful paintings are those which you dream about when you lie in bed smoking a pipe, but which you never paint.

https://vimeo.com/144268990

[sally]

The voiceover is my voice! (and I helped some in the writing).

♥♥♥ exciting!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!

[niminy-piminy]

btw. speaking about CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE in the other thread...
in my view, these are conspirators of pleasure dutch-style!
https://letterboxd.com/film/strip-show-1850/

"Strip Show 1850" is a film made with a surprising eye for detail and simple movements about the beautiful Zeeland regional costumes that are covered, layer by layer. This short costume drama gives new meaning to the genre of the museum film. Strip Show 1850 is part of a series of museum films that Paul and Menno de Nooijer have commissioned by the Zeeuws Museum for the new interior of the Zeeuws Museum.

https://vimeo.com/422453245

[Umbugbene]

cool!
let's all of us watch/hear the film then.
i liked it!

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-sadness ... t-forever/
The most beautiful paintings are those which you dream about when you lie in bed smoking a pipe, but which you never paint.

https://vimeo.com/144268990

At 8 minutes, why not... I liked it pretty well for a short film, and to be honest I watched it without connecting it to Mauries at all... so when I say the writing is beautiful, it's an opinion I formed without realizing he was involved. The voice-over is also well done. If the film hadn't relied so much on the words, if it had expressed those emotions and thoughts in a story, I would have liked it better, but of course it would have been much longer.

Almost precisely halfway through the film the screen darkens, and I had a strong premonition that it was about to switch to color - which it did! The second half is set to a series of still images derived from Vincent van Gogh paintings, which made me wonder whether it was all based on the correspondence between Vincent and his brother Theo?

[sally]

i watched it entirely connected to mauries and now want him to read me in-head bedtime stories, but having furtled around melancholy in the last few days (https://unherd.com/2021/03/melancholy-saved-my-life/) i've had quite enough of such stoic secret heroism for the moment even if the trees were nice

my final comment regarding dutch cinema is that there are plenty of unsubbed ones on the eye youtube channel leading me to believe that there is a whole raft of fanfare-like comedies from the 50's that i would love if only i understood them.

regarding belgium, aside from seagulls die in the harbour, and delvaux, machin and storck, dekeukeleire, again more 1910's seaside dramas, the first the last by bouli lanners, la perle and old harry kümel i don't think if i saw a belgian film i knew it.

as for boris lehman, i've definitely seen some of his films but have neglected to note them on letterboxd and now have no idea which ones, but he was engaging company anyway

[greennui]

Are you aware of Zwartjes, Jiri? 'Icky' cinema, one could say.

https://vimeo.com/227738297

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDduIR9UiJA

[niminy-piminy]

Are you aware of Zwartjes, Jiri? 'Icky' cinema, one could say.

i watched a few of his films prior to logging on KM (i.e. in the long past) and as can be expected had affinity — but need to rewatch and delve much more into his oeuvre.

[Silga]

I can recommend some films from Benelux that I liked. Most of them feature funny-weird, quirky characters.

Matterhorn (Diederik Ebbinge, 2013)

Duska (Jos Stelling, 2007)

Every film from Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon. They work with French producers, but I still think of them as Belgian filmmakers. L'iceberg (2005), Rumba (2008), The Fairy (2011), Lost in Paris (2016).

I am not sure if Michaël R. Roskam's Racer and the Jailbird (2017) is good enough to recommend, but I liked his early short film Carlo (2004).

Belgica (Felix van Groeningen, 2016). Belgica features one of my favorite soundtracks in contemporary cinema, originally composed by Soulwax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz1yQcfEGX4

[sally]

anyone on facebook (alas not me) starting at some time i'm not sure of but within a couple of hours i think? (also why during the day when people are working? gr)

https://www.facebook.com/events/3844974555599459/

[sally]

oh it now nm

[niminy-piminy]

starting at some time

Today at 3 PM UTC+02 (they say)

and btw. "A Season of Classic Films: Classics Today" webinar (following the "Czech silent" screening) is also today... Time: Apr 8, 2021 07:30 PM (Bohemian time)

and btw. if anyone wonders how come i have so much time to write so many silly things on this forum day and night, attend all kinds of fringe webinars (taking place in unsuitable times for a working-class person), then it is because i am at the moment on fully paid vacation (due to epidemics — tho i am perfectly healthy — physically & mentally) — till the end of April.
so till the end of April, i can still mimic the ways of life of an eccentric rentier.
tho there is a good/bad hope (depends how you view a leisure class) in May i will start working again and will have no time to write so many ridiculous things — as i am capable to do at the moment.

[niminy-piminy]

it is cool (thx for mentioning it) tho it says "live video interrupted" pretty often.

carnival (at someplace)...


EDIT: i came late and it was over pretty fast (i didn't see much).
tho there is an additional (somewhat confusing) claim that gives some (maybe false) hope...
"CINEMATEK was live and their video will be available soon."